


The Full College Experience

by reliquiaen



Category: Neon Genesis Evangelion
Genre: F/F
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-08-20
Updated: 2015-08-20
Packaged: 2018-04-16 06:46:44
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 19,121
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4615311
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/reliquiaen/pseuds/reliquiaen
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>"Her best friend was suspiciously absent, leaving her with just the 'cute barista' and an intense sense of discomfort." Basically. Kinda sorta AU.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Xairathan](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Xairathan/gifts).



> This is for Xairathan who knows more about the canonverse than me (by a loooong shot) so any problems contained within can be put down to the fact that I haven't watched the show. I did see 'End of Evangelion' a few years ago but without the context of the show I was mostly just confused and enjoying robot animations.

“Bookstore.”

Kyoko rolled her eyes. “Coffee first, nerd.”

“Bookstore,” Mari insisted, fingers tightening around her bag strap.

“It’s the first week, okay? Lighten up.” Without waiting for any more objections, Kyoko strolled off down the street. Somehow she seemed to have a map of campus burned into her head already. Mari wasn’t sure whether that irritated or impressed her. Maybe both.

“Just because it’s the first week,” Mari huffed, picking up her feet to match Kyoko’s pace, “doesn’t mean there won’t be assignments. You know that, right? I have readings to do.”

“Did you have like… a _life_ when you were in high school?” Kyoko asked, not unkindly, though she did have a teasing smile tilted across her mouth. “Or have you always been so studious?”

Mari kept her eyes fixed on the footpath in front of her, doing her best to ignore the warmth creeping up her throat. “Of course I had a life,” she muttered.

“Like hobbies and friends and stuff, yeah?”

“Yeah. You?”

“Duh. You’re talking to the chess champion, right now. I was on the swim team too but that was mostly moral support for a friend. I float like a brick.”

For a moment Mari simply nodded along with Kyoko’s words, listening but not feeling like she had to give any kind of input. Not until she got a pointed look anyway; obviously a prompt for some more information regarding her own ‘life’. She sighed.

“Science club,” she grumbled. “And I did mathletics in senior year because they needed another member.”

Kyoko laughed. “Oh wow, even when you’re taking a break from study you’re still thinking. Don’t you get tired?”

“No.” Kyoko pulled open the door to this café they apparently had to visit, the little bell tinkling; Mari eyed it warily. “It’s best to do things you enjoy, right? Isn’t that why you’re studying molecular biology?”

“Yeah, obviously. But I enjoy other things too.” Kyoko motioned for Mari to go in ahead of her. “The more the merrier and all that.”

Reluctantly, Mari stepped through the doorway into the comparative warmth of the café. The space was quite open; a collection of wooden tables and chairs with rusted metal legs filled most of it. A glass case full of baked goods ran the breadth of the room with an old fashioned till on top, behind it a chalkboard covered the wall from about head height up. Underneath was a coffee machine and a whole heap of other café-related items that Mari decided almost instantly she didn’t care to identify.

On the whole, it was a lovely environment she supposed. The hanging lights illuminated everything nicely and even though their shades were a brushed metal of some kind they didn’t feel cold. It was an odd blend of modern and rustic country that Kyoko at least seemed to thoroughly appreciate.

“Pretty, huh?” she asked, flashing a smile. “The bookstore is next door.”

Mari just about bristled. “It’s _next door_ and you insisted on coming in here anyway?” she basically hissed. “I could’ve gone there and you could still have gotten coffee.”

“Relax, alright? It won’t take long. And you could use a break too.”

Somehow Mari doubted that very much. But she didn’t press the matter, instead her grip on her bag strap turned white-knuckled and she stormed off to one side of the shop. A little glass panel was inset into the front corner so she could see the bookshop (which she couldn’t believe she’d overlooked). A highly unnecessary – in her opinion – spice rack leaned against the wooden slats beside it. And okay, maybe it wasn’t strictly speaking a necessary decoration for the shop, but it did smell delightful. So there was that.

“Do you want a drink of some kind?” Kyoko wondered, leaning against the display case and peering over as if someone might be hiding behind it. “Tea?”

“No thank you,” Mari replied almost tonelessly. Nice of her to ask, however.

Kyoko looked for a hesitant moment as if she were going to persist. In the end she shrugged one shoulder and muttered something that might have been, “Suit yourself,” before turning back to the counter and dinging the little bell. There was no immediate response to that but Kyoko seemed more than happy to wait, leaning on one elbow against the case.

Something clattered then from in the back and they both looked around. A woman, probably not much older than either of them, stepped from the kitchen in a cloud of what Mari assumed was flour. She had her short brown hair pulled back with clips and a net tucked haphazardly around it; a few strands wisping free at the front. With one finger, she tilted her horn-rimmed glasses up her nose, leaving a splotch of flour across her cheek in the process.

“Hi, sorry,” she exhaled heavily. “We don’t usually have customers here right now. Just during the morning and afternoon rushes. How can I help you?”

Kyoko grinned. “Well, for starters, you can tell me what the deal is with the name of this place. I was talking to a guy in my orientation earlier and he acted like there was some big mysterious conspiracy thing going on.”

“Oh.” The girl actually laughed, dusting her palms absently down her apron. “No, not really. The original owner was a college graduate from here. He thought it would be funny to call it Third Impact because of how much coffee students drink.”

“What?” Kyoko all but whined. “That’s it? Like three cups of coffee?”

“Yep!”

“I’m honestly feeling sort of let down by that. How underwhelming.” Kyoko sighed as if this revelation was a Big Deal for her. “Well, I’ll just have a cappuccino thanks.”

“No worries.” Taking a moment from ringing up the order on the brass till, the woman looked over. Mari’s heart clenched painfully between her ribs. “And you? Can I get you something?”

She made a concentrated effort not to squint her eyes suspiciously at the overly pleasant woman. Who the hell was like that? In retail? Ugh. “No thank you,” she ground out again.

But the woman just beamed at her some more. “Awesome. I’ll just be a moment.” With that, she flounced back into the kitchen. Mari looked pointedly at the coffee machine sitting _right there_ behind the bench but nobody was paying her excellent ‘what are you doing’ look any attention.

And truly, she was ‘just a moment’, within ten seconds (not even entirely long enough for Mari to decide she would bail on Kyoko and her coffee and wait in the bookstore) she was back. In her hands she had a pair of cupcakes balanced and a few of whatever it was she needed to make coffee. Which she proceeded to put in the machine Mari had already noted twice now. Points for observation.

“Here you are,” the still chipper server declared, pushing a cupcake with blue icing and little white flowers into Kyoko’s hands. “Fresh too! And on the house.” She pressed the other one (pink with yellow flowers) into Mari’s grasp.

As their fingers brushed – leaving smudges of flour and icing on Mari’s thumb – the bottom dropped out of her stomach. She backed away quickly, fumbling, almost dropping the cupcake but somehow feeling like it would be terrible if she did. Mari squeezed it a little tighter, squishing the bottom as she looked up, surprised to find the woman watching her through her amber glasses. Something glittered in her deep green eyes and Mari decided she wanted to be anywhere but standing in this café.

Hastily, hoping she wasn’t _blushing_ (for God’s sake), she backpedalled, bumping into something while grasping behind her for the handle. In the end, she had to rip her gaze away from the stupid café woman and look back. Her fingers slammed around the knob and then she was outside, _breathing_ again.

That was the weirdest thing she had ever experienced. And she’d spent two hours with Kyoko already today so that was saying something. She closed her eyes, feeling a high-school-girl-with-a-crush urge to adjust her glasses across her nose. Foolish.

Mari took a nice calming breath and headed for the bookstore. Kyoko could deal with café lady and her coffee and her cupcakes and her smiles. That was absolutely, one hundred percent, not why she was here. Nope. No sir. Crossing off all the suggested readings on her booklist was top priority.

The door to the bookshop didn’t tinkle, but neither did it have a place for the workers to hide away. Well not really. There were, of course, the towering bookshelves with their crookedly stacked books, some leaning precariously from their perches and others lined up neatly together. It was clear just from looking at them which sections were visited most frequently and which topics were looked at by fastidious students such as herself.

A small counter sat right by the door, a column of books wobbling by the wall, a whirring monitor displaying a field of twinkling stars and a bored looking girl on a swivel stool reading something on computer science. The girl had short blonde hair and brown eyes that didn’t so much as blink when Mari walked in. Indeed, she didn’t look up, didn’t pause in her reading, never so much as registered that a prospective customer had arrived.

Mari waited, thinking that perhaps something about the situation would change. But nothing happened. The girl turned the page and then lifted the same hand she’d just used to point to a sign that read ‘leave your bags by the door’. Slowly, Mari let the strap of her bag slip from her shoulder and clunk solidly to the carpet beneath a table with out-of-date pamphlets proclaiming the orientation week festivities.

The hand returned to holding the book. About thirty seconds later another page was turned. Nothing else of note occurred so Mari took that as her cue to go about her business.

She tugged her phone from her back pocket and tapped into her booklist. It was appropriately long, filled with things she was honestly looking forward to reading. Determinedly, she set out to locate as many of the tomes as she could, taking bites out of her cupcake as she did so. Preferably before Kyoko found her and talked her into some other adventure.

Twenty minutes and one armful of readings later, Kyoko predictably stumbled across her meandering through the shelves. Coffee cup in hand, infuriating smile quirking her lips, she wandered over. Happily, it took her a few moments before saying something Mari might wish she hadn’t. But when she did speak, Mari _really_ wished she hadn’t.

“Her name’s Yui.”

Mari spun, pile of books trembling, mouth working but no sound emerging. “Who? What are you talking about?” she managed.

Kyoko hunched a shoulder in a vague gesture. “The cute barista you were ogling. Yui Ikari.”

Whipping around, Mari did her best to find the books more interesting. “I wasn’t ogling,” she insisted.

“Uh huh. Sure.” She paused to take a sip. “So did you find your books?” Kyoko was eyeing her impressive collection. “Are you sure you don’t want to take the whole place home?”

“Don’t be mean,” Mari grouched. “I’m missing one. It doesn’t appear to be here.”

“Why don’t you ask the nice attendant? I’m sure she could help you.” The accompanying lifted eyebrow was highly uncalled for.

Mari sighed. That was a decent idea. “Here,” she huffed, launching a handful of her books into Kyoko’s arms. “Be useful.”

“Ooh, okay then,” Kyoko laughed, staggering slightly as she adjusted to the weight.

Stepping back through the shelves with Kyoko on her heels, Mari found the clerk in precisely the same position she’d been in earlier. How unusual. As before, the blonde didn’t look up, just kept on reading her book. Mari stood in front of her waiting to be noticed but it didn’t happen. She shuffled her feet, uncomfortably.

“Excuse me,” she began. “I’m looking for this book on biological engineering?” Mari held her phone across the desk so the title was visible.

With a quiet sigh, the girl turned her still bored eyes on the screen. She blinked once. Then her fingers flashed across the keyboard.

“It’s not in stock,” she droned. “I can put it on order if you’d like.”

“Yes please.”

The girl flicked her gaze to Kyoko. “You’re not supposed to eat or drink in here.” Then she went back to the computer, typing something into a complicated spreadsheet. A few clicks later and the book was being ordered in. “I’ll need your name and phone number. Are you getting all of those?”

“Yes, I am. Mari Makinami,” she explained, rattling off her phone number as well.

“Cool, I’ll give you a ring when it arrives. Might take a few weeks though.”

“That’s alright,” Mari tried with a tentative smile. “I’ve got plenty to read in the meantime.”

“You sure do. Let me tally that up for you.” Again, her eyes darted to Kyoko who hadn’t moved. “Still no drinking in here.”

With a quick flash of her teeth, Kyoko dropped the books on the table. “Well alright then.” Pointedly, she took a sip before making it outside.

Considering the apathetic air the girl oozed, she was remarkably quick at registering all the books. In well under the ten minutes Mari had anticipated she’d need, she was stepping back outside, satchel slung back over her shoulder and three rather heavy bags hanging from her fingers. They’d be numb before she made it back to her dorm.

Kyoko nodded at them. “If you plan on going on a spree every semester you’re going to have the biggest collection of text books I’ve ever seen by the end of this course. That’ll be like… a thousand books.”

“It won’t,” she denied. “Fortune favours the prepared.”

“And the broke?” Kyoko teased.

Mari only rolled her eyes.

“At least let me take one,” Kyoko offered, dropping her coffee cup in a bin as they walked past, heading back to campus. “They look ridiculous.”

“Oh yes, I’ll have excellent upper body strength,” she replied dryly. But she did pass one of them off to her friend.

“A cunning plan, if I do say so myself.” Kyoko hefted her bag, grinning as they wandered back towards their dorm. “So what do you want for dinner then? There’s a great Thai place down that way apparently,” she mused lifting her unencumbered hand to point in what Mari assumed was a random direction.

“Only if you’re buying.”

Kyoko rolled her eyes. “Whatever.”

 

* * *

 

If this café visiting nonsense had been advertised as Morning Ritual from the very first time they stepped inside, Mari would’ve never gone in. Regardless of the cute barista, who – she is very well aware – she wouldn’t have known about anyway if she’d never gone in. Instead, she found herself standing off to one side, clutching her books for the day to her chest in a vain attempt at throwing up a defensive wall as she waited for Kyoko to order her coffee.

As had been stated during their first visit, it was pretty busy at this time of morning. Probably more so given that today was the first Monday of semester. Wall to wall, the place was packed with students who didn’t look nearly as tired at the moment as they would three weeks from now, Mari knew. With their state of wakefulness came a level of noise that bordered on uncomfortable in the small space.

They jostled around a lot too, obviously even without their hit of caffeine for the day they were energetic, something that would probably not last the day. No doubt it was the fault of just this shifting that saw Mari end up a lot closer to the counter than she might’ve liked. And as she was standing there, she decided that perhaps a cup of tea wouldn’t hurt. It did smell so nice.

“Hey.”

She glanced over, somehow managing to be surprised to see the… ‘cute barista’ from the other day. “Good morning,” she muttered, fingers tightening around her books.

The woman – Yui – just smiled. “Can I get you something today?”

Mari dithered, thumb tapping against the spine of a textbook. “Yes,” she blurted and instantly wondered why. “Tea please.”

“Any kind in particular?”

“English Breakfast is fine.”

With another blinding grin, Yui danced off to get her order. Mari stepped away from the counter, letting a tall fellow take the next order. She spotted Kyoko across the café having an animated conversation with a guy as they waited for their drinks. For a moment, Mari considered going over to join them, but the crush of bodies between them deterred her. While she waited, she jammed her books into her bag; it wasn’t quite big enough for them all but she managed. Plus she figured she’d need her hands to hold the tea.

It was probably for the best, anyway. Not two minutes later, Yui appeared at her elbow, a brown Styrofoam cup with a little white lid in one hand and another cupcake in the other. Mari took a second to register what she was seeing.

“How much?” she eventually asked, fishing around in her pocket for her coin purse.

“Two fifty for the tea,” Yui told her. “The cake is on the house.”

“Shouldn’t people pay for these too?” she asked, placing the correct change on the display case.

Yui shrugged. “I make extra in the morning. I just like to.”

“Okay… I guess.” Yui beamed at her as she took the cupcake (green icing today, with the white flowers). “I’m Mari,” she added slowly.

“Yui,” was the enthusiastic reply. Mari ripped her eyes away.

Across the café, Kyoko was watching them talk, a funny smile on her face. “I’m just…” she nodded at the door. “It’s a bit crowded.”

“Alright. Have a good day.”

“Yeah… you too.”

Mari ducked away, once more inexplicably relieved to make it outside. Thankfully, Kyoko didn’t take long to catch up. She was still wearing that infuriating little smile though.

“Spoke to her today, huh?” she laughed. “How was that?”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“Sure. Well hustle, Mari. Don’t want to be late to our very first class.”

“No, we don’t.” She paused before correcting herself. “Well _I_ don’t. You looked like you’d be willing to ditch class and hang out with those guys you were talking to.”

Kyoko eyed her strangely. “I don’t think you can count,” she drawled. “It was just one guy. And I wouldn’t ditch you for him, excuse you. I’m looking forward to partnering up with you and dominating this class.”

Mari smiled. “That is good to know. Who was he? In our class?”

“Not this one,” Kyoko explained with a casual shrug. “He’s here playing baseball I think he said. Doing something with mechanical engineering.”

Mari bobbed her head. “Cool.”

“I guess. I figure it’s good to know people, right? It’s more fun to hang out with friends than strangers.”

“You,” Mari began with a smile, “have seriously strange life goals.”

“Whatever you say,” she laughed. But then added, “Maybe I’ll get a piercing like that girl at the bookstore.”

“Oh my god.”

 

* * *

 

One week into semester, Kyoko’s Morning Ritual changed. At first she’d promised to meet up with Mari at Third Impact every morning (their schedules were wildly different every day except Monday), but after a few days she got caught up with study just like Mari had predicted. And it didn’t help that Kyoko had a bad habit of hitting snooze on her alarm twice before actually getting up in the morning.

In any case, Mari had late starts on Tuesday and Thursday and no classes at all the other days so she happily found herself avoiding the peak hour rush at the café. Though why she went at all without Kyoko was anyone’s guess. (Though really, she should’ve known.)

To herself, quietly, she explained her presence at the café away with an ‘it’s quieter and smells nicer than the library plus free wifi’ argument. So she could sit at a table in the corner right by the window and study in a little bubble out of everyone’s way. And when she needed a break she could look at the view.

By which she unequivocally meant the street outside the window.

She absolutely did not mean she’d stare at Yui under any circumstances. No way.

(Yet she did.)

(Frequently.)

Yui never seemed to notice, thank goodness, when Mari caught herself watching. That would’ve been way awkward. The tall guy with the short beard did on occasion though. He just smiled this somewhat uncomfortable smile and moved on with his business. And to her knowledge, he hadn’t mentioned anything to Yui.

The Tuesday of the second week, Mari was absorbed in the readings she was doing for her class on organic evolution, completely isolated from the rest of the world. Her ability to focus so entirely on something seemed to baffle Kyoko (she called it weird), but that was fine. Mari found Kyoko’s brand of ‘learning osmosis’ utterly beyond comprehension.

In any case, Mari was so fixated on her textbook – taping rainbow sticky notes next to pertinent information and jotting down paraphrased notes and page numbers – that she didn’t realise someone had joined her for at least five minutes. At least. It could’ve been half an hour, honestly.

When she did notice that she was no longer alone, she nearly startled out of her skin.

“Oh,” she gasped. “Hello, Yui.”

“Hey,” she chirped. “Didn’t mean to interrupt. What are you reading?” Mari hummed, flipping the book closed so the title was visible. “Oh, I did that class last year!”

“Bio engineering?” Mari asked, honestly shocked by the possibility they were studying the same thing.

“Molecular biology, actually,” Yui corrected, not appearing too disappointed by that. “We’ll probably have some classes together though. That’s so cool. You’re a first year, right?”

“Yes. Are you second?”

“Sure am! You’re at Kyoto, right?”

Mari smiled slightly. “Obviously. I’m not going to walk here from all the way across town, no matter how much I like your company…”

Oh. Shit. Well yes, she did just say that out loud. Even before the words had faded, Mari felt her cheeks heat and she looked away, hoping furiously that nothing would be said on the matter.

Yui didn’t so much as miss a beat. “Well you never know what someone will do for their tea.”

Crisis averted. “Yes, well Kyoko would skip class for coffee. Same principle, I guess.”

“She hasn’t been in the last few days…” Yui’s words were obviously a prompt and since they’d successfully navigated away from their previous uncharted waters, Mari decided it was probably safe to look back at her. Other than her quiet smile there was nothing written on her face to suggest Mari had implied she liked the café for its service more than its tea.

She shrugged. “Group projects. One of her classes has an assignment due in week five I think she said. Apparently she ended up in a group of halfwits.”

Yui pulled a face, nose crinkling, eyes creasing in the corners, her lips quirking as she tried not to smile and failed. “That’s really unfortunate, I’m so sorry for her.”

“She’ll be fine. Kyoko is some kind of genius.”

“Still, groups with useless people are the worst sort of college torture.”

Mari’s gaze flicked between Yui’s eyes. “Yeah. I intend to avoid groups with people like that.”

Yui’s smile was blinding. “Well it’s a five year course so you’re bound to get landed with some dunces at some point or other. They make for good stories if nothing else.”

“That’s true.” Mari wasn’t sure whether she could manage to say something more. But either way she didn’t get a chance. Her phone beeped in her pocket letting her know that she had a class starting in ten minutes. “Ah!” She fumbled it from her pocket to switch it off. “I’ve… Gotta go to class now.”

Not fazed by this in the least, Yui stood and backed towards the counter where the tall guy was doing something to the coffee machine. “No worries. See you tomorrow.”

“Yep. You sure will.”

As she reached the footpath it occurred to her that maybe she’d been too enthusiastic.

 

* * *

 

Kyoko looked at the time on her phone in a manner that Mari assumed was mocking even though there was hardly any way to look at the time mockingly. “Wow, look at you being three minutes late to class,” she gasped, shifting her books so Mari could sit. “Is this what it looks like when hell freezes over?”

“Oh shut your face, Kyoko,” Mari sighed. “There was some kind of student traffic jam in the lobby.”

“Yeah. One of the chemistry classes thought it’d be a great idea to let off home-made fireworks from the window.”

Her eyebrows shot up. “Seriously?”

“Yes, seriously. They set the sofa on fire. It was awesome.” As she tugged her books from her bag Kyoko remained quiet. But then, “So how’s your barista?”

Mari should’ve been expecting it, but she wasn’t. Consequently her book hit the table a little harder and louder than she’d anticipated. “No possessives, please,” she groaned.

“Fine. Did you speak to her at least?”

Mari rolled her eyes. “Yes. She’s nice, we chatted. She’s second year molecular biology.”

“Aw, you found a nerd just like you.”

“I can and will cut ties with you, Soryu.”

Kyoko laughed, bumping their shoulders together. “No you couldn’t. You’re blessed with me as a roommate. You’re stuck with me.”

A fact Mari could work around. She didn’t point that out to Kyoko though. Instead she turned her gaze to her book and ignored her.

 

* * *

 

“So,” Kyoko sang, swinging into their apartment and kicking the door shut. “Toji’s throwing a party this weekend. A kind of mid-semester thank-god-we’re-still-alive kinda party. Wanna go with me?”

Mari lowered her book to peer incredulously at her friend over the top. “If this is you asking me on a date, then no.”

“Oh my god, Mari, ew. I just don’t want to go by myself.”

“Uh huh.” She went back to reading. “Who’s Toji?”

Kyoko flopped ono the couch beside her. “That baseball guy I was talking to at Third Impact ages ago. He’s in none of my classes, but one of his friends is and we bumped into each other after my late lecture a few weeks back.”

Again, Mari eyed her worriedly. “A party though?”

“It’s the mid-semester break, Mari,” Kyoko whined, rolling onto her knees in a pseudo-begging position. “Please? Come with me so I don’t have to hang around with all those half-drunk baseball guys by myself.”

“Alright, fine.” The tail half of her acquiescence was drowned out by Kyoko’s happy squeezing.

“Thank you, yes! It’ll be a blast, I promise.”

“If it’s not, I’m bringing you to that lecture Sunday afternoon as punishment.”

Kyoko’s face contorted into something horrified and offended. “I will make sure you enjoy it. Guaranteed fun for all who attend.”

With that Kyoko bounced off the sofa and into the kitchenette. “That does not mean you try to get me drunk, Kyoko!” Mari called after her.

Muffled laughter was all the answer she received. A sinking feeling wobbled around in her stomach before plunging to her toes. Suddenly Mari was convinced this would end badly.

 

* * *

 

Typically, the party was thrown off campus (per the strict regulations of Kyoto security) at a large house somewhere in the suburbs. It wasn’t really all that far from the university, but Mari would’ve probably preferred _not_ to walk the seven and a half blocks all the same. At least she wasn’t wearing heels. How Kyoko had stayed upright was anyone’s best guess. Hopefully they could find someone sober and trustworthy to drive them back.

But there was _no way_ Mari was going to just sleep on the floor. Or in the shrubs.

“Come on, Mari!” Kyoko called, looping their arms together and dragging her across the lawn towards the house and the blaring music emanating through the windows. Light spilled from the doors and from the balcony on the second floor, turning the whole building into a strangely bio-luminescent monster crouched in the dark of the evening. “Party time. I’m sure there are plenty of your friends here to chat to.”

“They probably can’t hear me over the noise,” Mari had to basically yell in Kyoko’s ear to make herself heard. Why the music (if indeed it could be called that) needed to be as loud as it was – that is: deafening – escaped her. “I should just go home.”

Kyoko’s expression turned – very slowly – into something almost pitiful. Her head tilted ever so slightly to one side, her eyes all big and watery, lower lip sticking out just a little. If she’d had ears they would’ve flopped hopefully over her eyes. It was honestly the best pleading puppy dog face Mari had ever seen.

And the worst part was that it totally worked.

“Fine,” she huffed. “I’ll stay. But only for a little while.” Kyoko’s face broke into a massive smile. “But if you ditch me I’m gone.”

“Alright,” Kyoko laughed, holding up her hands. “Let’s go out the back, I want to find Toji.”

Mari followed Kyoko closely as they pressed through the crush of bodies, wending through the living room, then the kitchen (where Kyoko paused to grab a drink) and finally into the comparatively clear air of the back yard. A fenced pool off to one side and a paved patio complete with outdoor furniture set and barbeque dominated most of the space. A quaint little rock garden filled the rest; only a single patch of grass existed caught in one corner and shaded by a large tree leaning over from the neighbours’ yard. That little green oasis was inhabited by a circle of people who, Mari assumed, were smoking something illegal.

Kyoko’s fingers – cold from holding her bottle – wrapped around her elbow and Mari found herself being guided to the pool. A bunch of hollering young men were dive-bombing off a plastic deck chair into the deep end while girls laughed, feet dangling in the water from the edge. Even as they watch, one guy surfaced by an unsuspecting woman and hauled her into the water screeching.

“Hey!” One of the guys shook his short brown hair out of his eyes and loped over. Kyoko leaned languidly over the fence to slap his shoulder. “You made it,” he observed. “And you brought a friend.” He flashed Mari what he no doubt considered a charming smile. She glared back. “You coming in?”

“No swimsuit, I’m afraid, Toji,” Kyoko lamented around a grin. “Next time.”

“Yeah? No one will mind if you get wet in that.”

“I’m sure, perv.” She shoved at his head but he ducked away. “Let me know when beer pong starts. I’m gonna kick your arse.”

He levelled a finger at her. “You’re gonna _try_.” And then he jumped backwards into the pool, splashing everyone on the far side and resulting in a chorus of shrieks.

Kyoko slung her arm around Mari’s shoulders then and steered them away from the pool. “And now, you’re going to sit on one of those comfy looking chairs and hold my beer while I pee, okay?”

Mari scrunched her nose up. “Did not need that much information,” she mumbled. “But okay.”

“Awesome. Don’t party too hard without me.”

“Couldn’t even if I wanted to,” she sighed as Kyoko flounced back towards the house. There were only a few people sitting on the patio, but Mari didn’t recognise any of them. Still, when she sat, one of the girls leaned across the table.

“You’re Mari, right?” she asked.

“Um, yes? How…?” she wondered, surprised that someone had recognised her.

The woman shrugged, her hair swaying. “I’m in one of Kyoko’s classes. She talks about you sometimes.”

Mari smiled wryly. “All the good stuff, I hope?”

“Oh yeah. I’m Naoko, by the way.”

“Nice to meet you.”

Naoko opened her mouth to say something else, but glanced up. Something inside must’ve caught her eye and confusion flashed across her face. But then she was standing. “Sorry, I’ll be right back.”

With that and an apologetic smile, Naoko was gone, leaving Mari to pick idly at the label on Kyoko’s beer bottle by herself. Not that she stayed that way for long. When the bench seat shifted beside her, Mari was prepared for the worst; maybe some drunk guy coming over to flirt awkwardly or another girl making polite small talk. But no.

Mari didn’t know whether it was worse or infinitely better when she turned to see Yui’s smiling face. She hastily set the bottle on the table in front of her, but then her fingers had nothing to toy awkwardly with. She laced her fingers together in her lap to prevent them from twitching uncomfortably.

“Hey, Yui,” she said as softly as she could.

“Hi,” she replied cheerily. “I didn’t know you were going to be here. Kyoko said she’d try and talk you into it. I’m so glad you came.” And then she placed her hand on Mari’s arm.

She felt the heat in her cheeks kindle and sucked in a deep breath. Not that depriving herself of oxygen would make her less red, but whatever. At least she managed not to pull away like a weirdo.

“Yeah,” she warbled. “Well, Kyoko’s pretty persuasive when she wants to be.” Then she frowned. “Has she been by the café lately?”

Yui shrugged. “No, but we have a class together. With Naoko.”

“Oh. Oh okay.”

Someone screamed across the yard and Mari instinctively twisted to see. But they just appeared to be enthusiastic about the table being unfolded by the pool. Beer pong, by the looks. Kyoko raced from inside (a new beer in hand), hollering happily about trouncing someone.

Mari must have made an unhappy face because Yui laughed. “Not a party person?”

“No, not really,” she agreed. “I’m an indoors person. Like a housecat.”

_What_? Honestly that was the dumbest thing she’d ever said. Why did her words have to get all stupid _in this moment_?

But Yui laughed again, so perhaps all was no lost. “I hear you. I’m only here because Naoko and Kyoko talked me into it. Something about ‘the whole college experience’?”

Mari lifted a hand to emphasise her words. “Yes, what even is that? Kyoko said the same thing to me.”

“I have no idea, to be honest. We’re at college to study, not party.”

“Exactly! Wow, we’re practically…” Mari cleared her throat, feeling that traitorous tomato colour return. “I mean, that’s… Yeah, I get that completely. Kyoko doesn’t seem to understand it.”

Yui didn’t notice her embarrassment; too busy watching the current beer pong match, her hand slipped from Mari’s arm leaving her filled with an inexplicable sense of disappointment. Kyoko was playing some broad-shouldered shirtless guy with a veritable wall of white teeth. He was waving his hand at Kyoko, but whatever was being said was lost in the music. In the end, whatever he was insisting became wholly obvious due to the fact that Kyoko snapped something and whipped her shirt off.

“Yes,” Yui murmured. “I get the impression she’s not a ‘think before you act’ type of girl.”

“But when she does think, she’s brilliant.”

Yui nodded. “She sure is.” They fell quiet, engrossed in watching Kyoko serve the little orange ball with probably more fury than was necessary. Shirtless Guy underestimated her. “How long have you known her?”

Mari shrugged. “Just this year. We were assigned a room together.”

“A very effective way of making friends. That’s how Naoko and I met, too.” She paused for a moment, entertained (if her smile was anything to go by) in how Shirtless Guy flailed trying to keep up with Kyoko. “How’s college treating you so far, anyway?”

She snorted. “The campus is a mess. A block is nowhere near B block and the library building is in H block. It makes no sense.”

Yui laughed, her hand landing on Mari’s arm again. “Yes, it is baffling isn’t it? I walked in on a lecture once my first week because I was in the wrong building.”

“Oh god, wasn’t that weird?”

“No! That’s the best part,” Yui told her excitedly. “The lecturer just sighed and pointed me the right way. Apparently it happens all the time.”

“Wow that’s unfortunate.”

“I know. Not strange though. This year I’ve had two people walk in because they thought it was a different room. One was a lab prac too.”

Mari grinned. “Now _that_ would’ve been awkward for them.”

“Yeah, apparently the dissections were not part of their course.”

“Gross!”

Yui tilted into her, laughing. “Aren’t you doing bio engineering?” she asked around her chuckles. “Shouldn’t you be alright with dissections?”

Mari huffed, tucking hair behind her ear that had slipped from the tail it was pulled back in. “Oh yeah well, I’m alright with dissections. But if you’re not prepared for it, that could be a shock.”

“It was,” Yui hummed, nodding. “The look on his face was priceless.” They fell into silence for a long minute then, both of them watching Kyoko smash another guy (also shirtless) in the shoulder with the ball. He yelped and the crowd jeered, Kyoko doing a little victory dance. “Would you like to study with us sometime?” Yui asked softly. “We have a group and we all get together on Fridays and Saturdays to study in the library. Kyoko could come too, if she would like.”

“Uh,” Mari blinked, taken completely aback by the offer. Blurting _hell yes_ didn’t seem advisable either. “Sure, I guess.”

Yui turned back to fix her with that intense green gaze, softened now by a little concern, it seemed. “You don’t have to. It’s just an offer. The lot of us more or less study the same subjects. I thought perhaps it’d be nice to have some second and third years to discuss assignments with.”

“Oh no, it would, for sure,” Mari assured her. “Yeah, that sounds good. Thanks.”

“No worries!” Yui said brightly. “If you’ve ever got any questions about stuff, just ask. Naoko or I probably have answers.”

“That is a bold assurance, Yui,” she deadpanned. “I’m going to have to make you prove it now.”

She just laughed.

Before Mari could flounder for a topic to prolong their conversation, she was interrupted.

“Yui!”

They both swivelled to see Naoko stepping onto the patio, phone in hand.

“Yes? What’s wrong?” Yui asked, standing.

Naoko waved her hand. “Oh nothing. My mum wants me to drive over in the morning since it’s the break. So I’m going home to sleep. Figured if you want a lift now’s the time to tell me.”

Yui was already nodding. “Yes, that’d be lovely, thank you.”

“Um,” Mari began, not wanting to cut in rudely. “Is there any chance I could tag along? I don’t fancy dragging Kyoko home like that. Not at this time of night.”

All three of them turned to watch Kyoko smack another little orange ping pong ball with her paddle. This one cracked harshly on the surface of the table, ricocheted in a violent line across the yard, caught a girl walking a wobbly line along the edge of the pool in the side of her head and then plinked into the pool. The girl toppled in after it not two seconds later.

“Yeah…” Naoko mused. “Might be best to take her home now.”

“Definitely,” Yui breathed.

Sighing once more, Mari stood and trotted across the yard to grab Kyoko’s elbow, snatching her shirt out of the bushes as she went. Kyoko glanced down at her, eyes bright, smile equally so.

“Ah, Mari,” she sang, leaning all her weight against Mari’s shoulder. “You look wonderful. Where’s your hat?”

“How much have you had to drink?” Naoko wondered, appearing beside Mari and relieving Kyoko of her current bottle. “You’ve only been here like an hour.”

“More than you,” Kyoko scolded.

“Clearly.”

Mari wrapped her other arm around Kyoko’s waist and guided her to the door. “I wasn’t even wearing a hat,” she grumbled.

The crowd inside the house had either departed to get smashed elsewhere, or they’d simply found various concealed locations in the house to pass out. Either way, the throng had thinned considerably and Mari was glad for it. The lack of bodies to trip over made navigating Kyoko much simpler.

Yui was waiting beside what Mari assumed was Naoko’s car. She was even kind enough to help get Kyoko up into the back seat. They wiggled her around until she was resting with her head against the glass on one side. Only when Mari climbed in next to her did Yui slide into the shotgun seat.

“Oooh,” Kyoko sang. “Getting hitched with your cute barista, I see.” Her words were blurred but definitely clear enough for Mari’s face to heat in response.

“You’re drunk out of your mind,” she muttered. “And absolutely no one is getting hitched.”

“K-I-S-S…” she slurred, patting at Mari’s cheek. Then – thankfully – she closed her eyes and seemed to fall asleep.

Yui twisted in her seat to look back at them. “Is she going to be alright?”

“Yeah, probably,” Mari decided, heaving in a deep breath and letting it whoosh out slowly. “I hope she doesn’t throw up. I’m not ready to handle that just yet.”

Silence pervaded the car for almost two whole blocks. “Did she mean me?” Yui whispered.

“What’s that?”

“The cute barista?”

Yep, there goes her face flushing again. “Probably. I think she meant to say something about hitching a ride with you? But who knows, she’s smashed.”

“Yes,” Yui agreed softly. “Yes she is.”

More quiet. Yui shuffled herself back around so she was facing out the windscreen once more. It stayed quiet in the cab until they arrived back at campus. So long as Kyoko’s gentle snoring didn’t count.

“Thanks for the lift, Naoko,” Mari muttered sliding from her seat and heading around to help Kyoko stand. “Come on, sleepy. Time to get you to bed.”

Kyoko made some sort of incoherent protest, but wrapped her arms around Mari and let herself be walked towards their dorm all the same. A door thunked behind her and then Yui was beside her, swiping her card at the entrance and holding the wide glass door open for her. Something Mari would’ve struggled with while supporting roughly eighty percent of Kyoko’s weight.

“Thanks. Any chance you could get our door upstairs too?” Mari felt bad for asking but knew if she went alone she’d probably leave Kyoko in the hall.

“Yeah, no worries. I asked Naoko to wait for me.” And she even dinged the button for the elevator. Mari smiled at her a little helplessly wondering if this is what suffocating felt like.

It took a painfully long time to arrive in the foyer, but in spite of that, the silence that descended around them managed not to be awkward. Probably because it was getting late and none of them cared. Or because it couldn’t _get_ any more awkward than walking a semi-unconscious drunk to bed.

Once inside the elevator, Mari took great satisfaction in propping Kyoko up in one corner so she wasn’t causing her some sort of back trauma. Plus, added bonus, she got to stand closer to Yui as a result. Totally not planned.

“Thanks for this,” she muttered again. “Really. I’m making a note not to go out with Kyoko when she’s planning on drinking ever again.”

Yui laughed, a positively delightful sound. “Isn’t this what friends are for? Keeping them safe while drunk and walking them home?”

Mari huffed. “You have a point. Maybe next time my stipulation will be not to propose marriage for me.”

Yui’s smile never faded, but the way she blinked said she was confused. Still, credit where credit’s due, she went with it. “Maybe have her propose a first date to being with. Baby steps and all that.”

“Yeah,” she sighed, nodding absently. “Small steps.”

The elevator pinged to announce their arrival on the fifth floor and Mari awkwardly arranged Kyoko’s limbs so she could be half-dragged-half-walked out into the hallway. She nodded her head in the direction of their room and it wasn’t until they were standing right outside the door that she realised the key was in her back pocket.

“Would you like to grab the key for me?” she asked jokingly. At the same time, she tried to lean Kyoko up against the wall but apparently Yui had absolutely _zero_ compunctions about doing exactly as she’d suggested.

Mari froze as she felt fingers dip into her back pocket. Her face was definitely flashing like a stop light when Yui jammed the newly retrieved key in the lock and pushed the door open. Very slowly, Mari moved past her into the apartment and unceremoniously dumped Kyoko on the couch.

As she turned, Yui pressed the key back into her palm. There was nothing on her face whatsoever to suggest that she’d just done that. Just a tired smile.

“Thanks,” Mari rasped.

“No worries.” And with that, Yui was gone.

Mari was still staring dumbly at the closed door about a minute later.

 

* * *

 

Kyoko’s neck cracked as she rolled it, arching her shoulders and stretching, pen still in hand. As she did so, her head lolled to one side. Mari could feel her watching but refused – flat out _refused_ – to let herself be distracted from writing up these notes.

“Are,” Kyoko asked painfully slowly, drawing the word out as she slumped sideways across the table to prop an elbow right in the middle of one of Mari’s books. “You _ever_ ,” she went on, now jabbing her pen at her and bobbing it in little circles. “Going to ask her out?”

Mari felt her shoulder squeeze inwardly without her permission, trying to make herself seem smaller than she was. “I don’t know what you’re talking about,” she grumbled.

“Oh sure,” Kyoko agreed readily, rolling her eyes now. “You were pretty keen on joining Yui and her friends for these study things and you turn up _super_ early.” As she said this, she waved her pen at their surrounds.

“Because I want to _study_ ,” she explained, articulating the last word very deliberately. “Yui’s not even here. What other purpose could I possibly have in the library?”

Kyoko blinked; face falling flat as if she hadn’t thought of that possibility. “Yeah well… You didn’t answer my question anyway.”

With a resigned sigh (this exact situation was why she’d started arriving a little earlier to the library for their study groups: Kyoko was distracting), Mari placed her pen in the fold of her book. “No,” she decided. “Because I don’t even know if she’d be interested. Why?”

“Just asking,” Kyoko deflected, shrugging and going back to her notes. “You get all dopey around her. Figured it might be a thing you’d like to do.”

Mari’s fingers clenched as she tried to fight down the pink she knew like clockwork was creeping up her neck. “I do not get _dopey_ ,” she mumbled, snatching her pen up. “That’s absurd.”

Before Kyoko had the chance to say something smart, their study friends collapsed into seats across the table from them. Naoko and Yui always turned up; sometimes by themselves and sometimes with random other people that Mari still wasn’t sure she’d recognise if she bumped into them elsewhere. Today a repeat study buddy – the softly spoken and slightly off-putting Rei – joined them as well. It had taken Mari a good long minute the first time to figure out that Rei was the stoic girl who’d served her at the bookstore three months ago.

“Hey, Mari,” Yui chimed happily. “Kyoko. What are you working on?”

Kyoko clicked her pen. “Oh just revising my microbiology notes.” The smile she flashed at Mari spoke several volumes she had absolutely no intention of reading.

“Did you find the hidden lecture?” Rei asked in her soft voice.

“What’s that?”

Rei shifted in her seat so she could reach Kyoko’s laptop. “It’s on the university server, buried in a mess of sub-folders.” She clicked around for a moment before turning the laptop back to Kyoko so she could see.

Her eyes flicked across the first page of notes before she smiled. “This is like a bonus level. Amazing. Thanks, Rei.”

Rei only shrugged and went back to her notes. Kyoko spared Mari one last glance before sticking her earbuds in and giving her attention to the mystery lecture. Mari would listen to it later, when her ability to concentrate wasn’t hampered by other people. (By which she did not specifically mean Yui.)

“Do you not have that class this semester, Mari?” Naoko wondered, plugging something into her laptop and getting out a little notepad.

She shook her head. “Nah, next semester.”

“Ah, right, you’re not mol-bio are you?”

More shaking of her head; smiling this time. Mari was positive she’d had a similar conversation with Naoko before. It wasn’t that she was forgetful, just that Mari supposed she had better things to remember than what it was other people were studying. And really, she didn’t blame her.

But either way, with Naoko and Kyoko both now wearing headphones and listening to recordings of lectures for their upcoming exams and Rei being her usual unobtrusive self at the far end of the table, it was really just Mari and Yui. This had happened a lot and Mari was completely aware that it was Kyoko’s doing. She didn’t _mind_ so much really, spending time with Yui was nice. But the whole meddling thing kind of irked her just on principle.

She offered Yui a shy smile and when the other girl beamed back at her over the top of her notebook she managed about six seconds before she had to look away again. For a while they were silent, the quite _scritching_ of their pens the only sound. Mari was fine with the companionable quiet, happy to alternate between taking notes and risking glances at Yui.

An indeterminate period of time passed before Yui reached across the table and touched her wrist. The contact sent a shiver up her arm and her eyes whipped around to inspect Yui’s face. An amused smile tickled the corners of her lips (which was way too distracting and that warm feeling in Mari’s stomach should just _stop_ now). But Yui wasn’t look at her, so Mari swivelled to see and found Naoko with her eyes closed, chin propped in her hands and Kyoko with her head tilted against the back of her seat, also asleep.

“Wow,” Mari breathed. “Kyoko I understand, but Naoko?”

“She went to her mum’s last night,” Yui explained. “It’s a bit of a drive.”

She bobbed her head. Then, before she could think better of it, asked, “Do you want to go get lunch?”

Yui blinked at her once, twice, seeming confused. A gentle tilt curved her mouth up slowly in another smile – different in some unfathomable way to the last. “Sure. Do you know what they’d like?”

“Kyoko will eat anything,” she assured Yui, standing and squashing the flash of disappointment that flared between her ribs. She figured she’d just leave her books. No one would steal textbooks, surely. Her pen she slipped into her pocket though.

“Chinese then?” Yui offered.

“Sounds great.” Mari waved for her to go first. “After you.”

The library – in its poorly labelled alphabet building – stood at the crest of the only rise on campus grounds. Sprawling away on the east side of that rise was Kyoto University’s other unfortunate labyrinth of buildings, all assigned a letter of the alphabet at random (or so it seemed). The west side of the not-quite-hill fell into what was affectionately called the Village. A collection of student housing apartment buildings, a few corner store type places for groceries, several shops for clothes, books, office supplies and other items necessary for student life, a movie theatre and a grand total of five different fast food places. Three of which were various types of foreign foods, one was a pizza joint and the other a bakery. So calling it a village was rather generous, Mari thought.

Given how spread out the campus was, most pertinent locations in the Village were pretty close together. It didn’t take them long to wander down to the Chinese place, filling the space and time between them with idle talk. Mostly when they had exams in the next few weeks. Mari’s timetable was decent, but she felt extremely sorry for Yui and her eight on a Monday morning, two and a half hour molecular development exam. Terrible planning.

Yui shrugged it off. “It’s not so bad,” she reasoned. “I’d rather get it out of the way first than be stressing about it through all my other exams.”

“True,” Mari relented. “But why Monday morning? That’s just cruel.”

“Maybe they’re hoping we’re more awake.”

Mari gave her a flat look. “If they wanted you awake, they’d have made it a ten o’clock start. How many of your classmates will sit up until five cramming and then be hyped up on caffeine and spotty sleep?”

Yui laughed. “You’re probably right there.”

“Exactly. I’ll put money on you being the only one rested for that exam.”

“You are too kind.”

But when Yui’s dazzling smile landed on her Mari couldn’t help but think maybe she could be kinder. Especially if that’s the kind of grin she gets. Her face expression felt fixed in a smile of her own, one she couldn’t turn off, not when Yui looked at her like that. Mari’s stomach did that weird boiling thing it had been doing more of late. Maybe she should get that looked at.

The shop was mostly empty, only one other person waiting for their food. So they placed their orders and took seats on the little green stools by the counter where customers could eat. Mari absently folded a napkin in and out of geometric shapes, wracking her brain for another topic to pursue.

In the end, she thought what came blurting from her mouth was something she might regret. “So that guy you work with at the café,” she began. At that point she realised what she’d said and wished she could take it back. But Yui was watching her expectantly now. “Is he your boyfriend or something? I dunno, you just seem to have a good time with each other.”

Her teeth clicked as she forced herself to stop vomiting words. Yui’s expression was unreadable for a good ten seconds and then turned into a vibrant smile. Complete with soft laughter.

“God, Gendo? No, he’s my brother.”

Mari’s anxious fiddling with the napkin turned into more blushing. She really hated that reaction. Where was her off switch?

“Oh my god,” she huffed. “I’m so sorry. He just makes you laugh a lot so I guessed… And I’ve seen him hanging out with you and Naoko a lot so… Wow. I’m sorry.” Mari hunched her shoulders and tried her hardest to melt into the stool.

Yui tilted her head, hair swaying. “It’s alright. Weird, but alright. He’s actually good friends with Toji. They play on the baseball team together.”

“Oh.” That was it. All the words she could muster. “I’m still sorry.”

“Really, it’s fine. I don’t have a boyfriend, god.”

That, finally, was enough to prompt Mari to look back up at her. “Why? I mean, you’re pretty great.” _Pretty and great_ , she mentally corrected. “Too much studying?”

“Well, yeah,” she laughed, eyes sparkling. “I guess. No time for dating.” Mari bobbed her head, understanding the sentiment. She just about fell off her seat though when Yui asked, “What about you?”

Her jaw dropped at the question, nose wrinkling of its own accord. “No. Why would I…? No.”

“Alright,” Yui allowed, bumping her shoulder. “Just asking.”

The server at the counter called them back for their meal then and Mari hoped fiercely that this conversation would be dropped and never picked up again. Ever. Or at least, not this version of it.

“So what classes are you enrolling in next semester?” Yui asked as they started back up the rise, lunch in hand.

“Probably whatever the recommendations are,” she confessed. “Unless there are some really amazing electives I find myself tempted by. Why?”

“Just wondering. I have a couple of classes that are first year for other courses,” she explained. “I thought maybe we might have a class or two together. Like how I have one with Kyoko this semester.”

That stupid uncontrollable smile was back, pulling Mari’s face out into a wide grin at just the possibility of such things transpiring. “That’d be cool.”

“I thought so. Might be nice to talk to you about something other than tea and revision.”

Mari laughed. “Yes,” she concurred. “Yes it would. But we have to survive exam block first.”

“I’m sure you’ll be fine.”

 

* * *

 

Mari didn’t see much of Yui or Naoko (or anybody really, other than Kyoko) during their two weeks of exams. And really all she saw of Kyoko was her passed out on the couch at weird hours or leaning heavily against the kitchen bench with dark bags beneath her eyes and bowls of minute noodles in her hands. Whatever life anyone had seemed to vaporise just for that one fortnight.

No one went to the library to study either. It was all too much effort to leave their apartments (or to get changed out of their pyjamas except when absolutely necessary, or so Kyoko seemed to think).

It was strange not to see any of the people she’d come to think of as friends during the semester. Yui didn’t even take any shifts at Third Impact, much to Mari’s displeasure. And no, being served by her brother just was not the same.

But she did survive the exams. By some miracle.

 

* * *

 

And one week later, in the midst of their mid-year break, with Kyoko’s legs draped across her lap on the sofa catching up on missed sleep, their grades appeared in emails. Kyoko didn’t blink. Her opinion was that if she could enrol in her next lot of classes then she passed and that’s that.

Mari opened the files with a touch of dread. But – as Yui had assured her – she’d done fine. Top percentage grades even.

 

* * *

 

Yui sent an email to her a few days later telling her excitedly that she and Naoko had both aced their exams.

Kyoko didn’t miss the opportunity for a snarky comment, but Mari was just happy to have received mail from her since Yui had gone to stay with Naoko at her parents’ place for the break.

 

* * *

 

They exchanged mail for the rest of their holiday.


	2. Chapter 2

Kyoko lifted a hand. “Before you say it,” she declared. “No, I will not go with you to the bookstore.”

Mari rolled her eyes. “I wasn’t going to say that, anyway.”

“Oh really?” A lifted eyebrow punctuated her question.

“Really.”

“Well I don’t want to go with you to the café either,” Kyoko added. “I don’t need to see you making doe eyes at Yui, thank you. Not unless you plan on actually doing something about this infatuation of yours.”

Mari clucked her tongue. “You’re infuriating. I was going to ask if you want to go to the orientation week faire, if you must know. We missed it last semester.”

At that, Kyoko straightened in her seat. “Oh. Well in that case, yes. Let me grab my bag.” She bounced off the sofa and Mari clicked the television (which had only been playing some lame mid-day soap reruns anyway) off. “So why exactly are we going?” Kyoko called from her room.

Mari shrugged even though her friend couldn’t see the gesture. “What was it you said about the ‘full college experience’?”

Kyoko came bounding out into the main room then, slinging her bag over her shoulder and looping her other arm through Mari’s. “I knew you’d come around. Maybe we can go watch Toji and Gendo play a game or something this semester?”

“Whatever you want, Kyoko.”

That earned her a strange look but Mari ignored it which was much easier than trying to interpret it. Instead she just led Kyoko from their apartment, locked the door and headed for the stairs.

“So…” Kyoko began.

“Café first,” Mari put in before she could start something. “You haven’t had coffee yet this morning and I don’t want you crashing on me.”

Kyoko arched a brow. “We _are_ going to see your pathetic infatuation then. Excellent.”

“Pathetic is a bit harsh,” she grouched. “You don’t have to come in with me.” She left unsaid that it would probably be best for her good health not to give Kyoko more opportunities to embarrass her beyond help.

As she’d expected, Kyoko was quick to protest that. “Nonsense, of course I’ll go in with you. I don’t want you ordering something gross for me to drink.” She paused. Then added slightly softer, “You know nothing of coffee.”

A valid reason, Mari supposed, but no matter how little she knew of _beans_ and _blends_ , she wasn’t sure she was ready to be mocked before semester even officially began. And perhaps she was looking forward to seeing Yui just a little more than she should, strictly speaking, but whatever. So her footsteps slowed on the way out of their apartment building until Kyoko was the one leading her by their still joined arms.

Walking close beside her friend wasn’t so bad, a brisk wind whipped down the hill, cutting through her light coat and making her wish she’d worn something a little thicker. They both hunched their shoulders up around their ears trying to block the breeze with their bodies, buried their chins in their scarves and picked up their feet. Even the prospect of being teased when she lost her words in front of Yui couldn’t stall her.

As always, the bell at Third Impact tinkled happily as they pushed through the door. Thankfully the place was empty, not a soul to be seen. Probably because the majority of the student body hadn’t arrive back yet. Or perhaps it was the cold weather. Or maybe even they were simply more inclined to get a coffee from one of the cheap stands on campus for the week.

Gendo was behind the counter, cleaning what Mari thought was maybe the filter from the coffee machine. He glanced up when they entered, smiled thinly and walked into the kitchen without saying a word. It would’ve been rude if Yui hadn’t bounded into the room, beaming at them and causing some sort of cardiac distress in Mari’s chest. And she had cupcakes again; these ones bearing the school colours. One even had a little tree piped on top of the dark blue and the other had the numbers 1897 piped in white icing with pale blue stars.

“That,” Kyoko mused, taking the one with the founding year, “is incredibly dedicated of you, Yui. Thanks.”

She shrugged. “A little bit of loyalty for orientation week. The mid-year intakes seem to find it amusing.” Yui smiled gently as she passed the tree cupcake to Mari. “I didn’t think I’d see you guys before the first classes.”

“Kyoko wanted to see the faire,” Mari said quickly, making sure Kyoko didn’t get a chance to say something she’d regret. “And we decided to get something warm to drink before braving the masses.”

Yui nodded. “Just your usual orders? I’ll be right back.”

Once Yui had disappeared back into the kitchen, Kyoko grinned at her around a mouthful. “Smooth,” she muttered. “Real good job there.”

“Oh stop it.”

Kyoko’s little grin was infuriating but Mari didn’t have to spend long thinking about _why_ that was. Yui reappeared in a cloud of flour with three drinks in hand. Kyoko didn’t question the extra cup, simply took the one she was offered and turned to the door. Mari, however, lifted her eyebrows as she took her tea.

“Why three cups?” she asked, taking a sip; delighted as usual that Yui made such a fantastic cup of tea.

“I’m coming with you,” Yui explained. “Gendo will cover for me.”

“Yeah,” Kyoko muttered. “Because you’re _so slammed_ right now.”

Yui just laughed at her, the first to step back out into the breeze. Mari wondered how she was going to manage in this weather with only a long sleeved shirt on. But once they reached the top of the rise and crossed into the main quad where most of the stalls were set up, there was marginally more sunlight. It didn’t really counter the wind, but it was warm.

They didn’t make it very far before Kyoko gave Mari a pointed look, made some sort of vague comment that might have been her spotting someone she wanted to talk to, and then she was gone. Mari watched her go, wondering if she’d be able to summon enough words to survive alone time with Yui. No changing it now, anyway.

“Oh,” Yui exhaled, teeth chattering lightly ten minutes later. “Where did Kyoko go?”

“Probably off to talk to some guy,” Mari dismissed. “She didn’t say.”

“Alright. Well that’s fine.” She rubbed her hands together. “Where do you want to go first then?”

Hesitating only for a moment (long enough for the little voice in her head to tell her this was a Bad Idea), Mari unwound her scarf and looped it around Yui’s neck. A look of surprise flashed across her face at the gesture. But then she smiled.

“Thanks.”

Mari shrugged. “It’s not much, let me know if you’d like my coat.” She paused for a second and then realised what she’d said and had a desperate need to find more words to distract from that potential blunder. “What about the IT people? Or there was a group set up over there looking at conservation and practices at the local zoo.”

Yui’s smile didn’t waver, blurred a little at the edges, sure, something soft and kind. “Let’s talk to the IT boys. Those animal rights people have a good cause but some of them are intense.”

Mari huffed a laugh. “Yeah.”

Well the IT stall was a bust. One of the guys, a skinny beanpole of a blonde with floppy hair, flirted very badly with Yui who laughed it off like it meant nothing to her. His friend winked at Mari and then she had to shuffle away because this was definitely not a situation she wanted to waste her time navigating. Yui just smiled and hooked her hand in the bend of Mari’s elbow as they wandered off.

“Why?” was the only spluttering word Mari could manage as they stepped past a trio of swimmers looking half-frozen in just their trunks.

“Because boys will always flirt with a cute girl,” Yui offered her by way of answer. From her face she was probably joking, but Mari just felt self-conscious. The implication that one of them might have sort of flirted with her and then Yui maybe calling her cute… It was enough to make her head spin.

“So what classes did you end up in?” she asked, failing to find a non-study related safe topic to discuss.

Yui didn’t mind her sharp veer into different territory at all, it seemed. She started rattling off her timetable with no more thought of it. She made it to Thursdays before Mari interrupted.

“Wait, your lab at one? What’s that for?” Mari questioned, tugging her gently down onto a bench by a stall selling sausages. The heat from the barbeque was very nice.

“Um, it’s one of the bio-chemistry prerequisites. I forget the unit number.”

“The chemical investigation class?” Mari couldn’t believe the tremor of hope lacing her words, but there it was all the same.

Yui beamed at her. “Yes, that’s the one. Lectures on Friday morning.”

“Oh, I’m in that class. I have the lab on Thursdays too.”

Still smiling happily, Yui leaned into her shoulder for two seconds. “That’s so exciting. We could be partners.”

“Yeah,” Mari sighed. The class had sounded sort of boring to her when she read the outline, but now she was honestly looking forward to it.

“Do you want to go by the sports aisle?” Yui asked her, gesturing over her shoulder to the pathway entirely dominated by the various Kyoto sports teams. They made more noise than all the other stalls combined, filling the air with their war-cries and colour ticker tape.

“Sports aisle?” Mari laughed, standing. “Like at a supermarket? Can you buy them?”

Yui’s eyes glittered. “I guess that depends on the girl asking.”

Mari kept smiling as they wandered over. She had no interest in joining an athletics team at all (or buying one of the current members), but hanging out with Yui was something she’d sign up for. Especially when Yui leaned into her again to whisper something half-teasing about one or another of the teams.

“The captain of that team last year got the whole lot of them suspended from the second half of the competition for starting a brawl.” About one of the football teams.

Or, “Over the summer the swim team’s best backstroker was kicked off the team.”

“Why?” Mari asked, talking directly into her ear to be heard over the chanting.

“No one really knows,” Yui admitted. “Reasons range from he and his girlfriend got a little frisky in the college pools to he punched the coach’s son and broke his nose.”

“A veritable mystery.”

“It certainly caused a lot of talk last year.”

“Hey, Yui!”

They both looked up and Mari regretted the fact that she stepped away slightly in the process. Toji waved a hand at them, gesturing that he wanted them to come over. He was the only one at the baseball stall, hip propped against one of the posts supporting the little tent. Mari glanced at Yui and they exchanged wry smiles before crossing the path to him.

“And Mari, hey. How’s things?” he greeted them, his smile all teeth.

Yui bobbed her head. “Good. All by yourself?”

He blew out his cheeks and puffed. “Yeah well… your brother’s working, two of the other guys had family commitments and the rest of them went off to challenge the track team to a few sprints.”

“Why?” Mari wondered.

Toji flashed another blinding grin. “Girls. Why else? The female volleyball team were all down on the oval earlier.”

Mari rolled her eyes and it made Yui laugh. “Well you have fun,” Mari added. “Do you want to find Kyoko?”

“Yes, we better,” Yui agreed, already lifting a hand in farewell. “Best to keep her out of trouble. Good luck, Toji!”

“Have fun!” he hollered after them as they melted back into the crowd.

All things considered, it didn’t take long to locate Kyoko. She’d found one of the coffee stands and was being regaled with a pitch for a yearlong supply. To Mari’s dismay, she actually seemed to be paying attention.

Before Mari could interrupt Kyoko, however, Naoko materialised.

“Oh, good,” she huffed. “Professor Fuyutsuki wants to speak to you.”

Yui’s face crinkled in honest confusion. “Did he say why?”

“No.” Naoko shook her head. “Just that it would be best if you spoke to him sooner rather than later.”

“Alright then…” Her eyes cut to Mari once and she offered a smile. “I guess I’ll see you around then.”

“If not at the café then in class, yeah?” Mari hoped her voice was less strangled aloud than it felt in her throat.

But Yui just smiled her luminous smile as if she’d completely forgotten that they had a class together this semester. (A whole semester of class with Yui!) “Definitely. See you.”

Mari wiggled her fingers in farewell but had no more words. Not in the face of that smile. Yui had well and truly disappeared into the crowd by the time she registered Kyoko’s presence at her shoulder, sipping her coffee calmly.

“That went well, I see,” she observed teasingly.

“Yes, thank you for bailing.”

Kyoko only shrugged. “I figured you’d appreciate it.” Then she waved a pamphlet in front of Mari’s face with her other hand. “And, free coffee.”

“Those things are scams and you know it,” Mari replied tartly, swatting it away.

“Maybe. You know, Yui is really bright,” she mused quietly, turning to walk off. “But honestly that girl can be denser than osmium and it’s even annoying me. I don’t know how you’re handling this.”

Mari rolled her eyes again but followed, _somehow_ resisting the urge to say something smart in response.

 

* * *

 

As it happened, they met at Third Impact before class (predictably really). New semester timetables meant that Yui didn’t work the morning shifts most days anymore, but when Mari pushed the door in, blinking blearily, on the first Tuesday of semester (and the first day she had a class) Yui was there behind the counter to give her the usual broad smile. And, once she’d seen Mari, had her tea ready in record time.

“Sorry,” Yui told her hastily. “I have to go shortly. My first lecture is at eight this morning.”

Mari checked the time on her phone. Seven-forty-five, it read. “That’s fine,” Mari said, smiling tiredly. “I have a class at nine.”

With another blinding smile Yui dropped a hand against her shoulder for a second. Mari did her best not to stiffen awkwardly at the contact but that treacherous red crept into her cheeks anyway. Why she had to be so pale that even the slightest of blushes looked neon would forever seem an injustice.

“I’ll see you on Thursday then,” Yui sang, pulling her apron off and slipping it over the hook.

“Yep,” Mari mumbled. “See you then.”

And she was gone.

 

* * *

 

It was with an embarrassing amount of excitement that Mari arrived to her lab on Thursday. She was the first to get to class, in fact. Professor Fuyutsuki wandered in not long later and after that the rest of the class trickled in. Yui in the last wave before the lesson started. She grinned at Mari the moment she saw her and collapsed in the chair next to her.

Mari really needed to stop feeling all warm and stupid when Yui smiled at her since she did it all the time. But it was hard. She did her best to ignore it. (A difficulty.)

Fuyutsuki didn’t mess around either. Mari had her notebook out ready to jot down anything she might need for the exam at the end of semester, but she wasn’t prepared to be thrust into lab work the very first day. She had goggles and coat because it was standard dress for all lab rooms, even without practical activities, but she hadn’t expected to actually need them.

Yui’s lab coat, she noticed, had personalised stitching across the breast pocket; her name in little block letters. When she realised Mari was looking, she explained, “Last year someone stole a couple of lab coats. I thought it best to get my name put on mine.”

“Fair enough. Sounds logical.”

“Everyone pair up,” Fuyutsuki instructed from the front of the room, waving a whiteboard marker like a sword. “We’re starting with a simple experiment today, looking at combustion points. So get yourselves together. The blends are in the jars at the back of the room. Bunsen Burners are in the cupboards beneath all the tables.”

Mari glanced at Yui, offered her a tight, questioning smile. The one she got in return was warm and cheerful and not at all concerned. Obviously Yui had already decided they’d be working together.

“I’ll set up the burner if you get the chemicals,” Yui said.

“Done. Maybe draw up a table for the results too.”

“Good idea.”

Other people had already started pulling little glass tubes with stoppers in the ends from the back shelves. Long rows of stands labelled with the names of the chemicals had been set up for the lesson. So Mari took one of each vial from the racks and carried them – carefully – back to Yui. They’d probably need water for some of them as well. So as she passed the sinks she filled a beaker from the tap and took that with her.

Fuyutsuki was standing by their bench as Mari started placing the vials in an empty stand. “You’ll be partnered together the whole semester,” he was explaining to Yui, eyes cutting to Mari only briefly. “So if you’re going to work in this pair, write your names down on the list here so I know who’s with who. And make sure you communicate. If you’re not going to be here at any point, let your partner know.” He lifted one greying eyebrow at them, obviously waiting for affirmative acknowledgement.

“Yes, of course,” Yui agreed, jotting down both her name and Mari’s in one of the boxes. “You’ve got my number, don’t you, Mari?”

“Actually no. Kyoko might.”

“Oh. I’m sorry.” And she pulled out her phone right there. “Here. Put your number in so I can text you.”

Hesitantly, Mari did just that and handed it back. Yui tapped at it for a few seconds and then Mari’s phone buzzed in her hip pocket. When she checked, it was a message from Yui; just a little smiley emoticon.

“There,” she proclaimed. “Now you have my number.”

Half-joking but mostly deadly serious, Mari laughed, “I’ll call you.”

Yui just beamed at her.

“Very good,” Fuyutsuki decided, sliding the list of groups off their desk. “Get on with it then.” He went off to talk to the next lot of people then, leaving them with their chemicals.

“Alright,” Yui breathed, sweeping hair out of her face. “Combustion point. Do we have a thermometer?”

Mari crouched in front of the bench, looking through the cupboards underneath. “Yes,” she discovered, holding it up. “Yes we do.”

“Excellent. Let’s do this.”

For the next ten minutes or so they did just that. Yui peering through her goggles added little lumps or crystals of whatever chemical they were combusting and when it caught fire, Mari would read off the number on the thermometer and jot it down in the table. Pretty straight forward as far as experiments went. Which was fair, first day prac and all that, Fuyutsuki would have to be all kinds of cruel to set them impossible tasks in the very first class.

And Mari thought it was going pretty well, really. She’d smile at Yui and Yui would smile back and make her heart do that stupid backflip thing. Perfectly normal.

At least until Mari wrote the temperature of their most recent chemical in the wrong cell. Then Yui leaned across the bench to tap it and point out her mistake. Mari didn’t mind the leaning so much, it was nice.

But then she smelled something a little like… charcoal? She turned her nose up, blinking around the room, trying to locate the source of that bizarre scent. Nothing out the window, nothing in the room, nothing anywhere. A mystery.

Then her heart did a strange and highly impossible contraction while simultaneously lodging itself in her throat because _holy shit_ Yui was _on fire_.

Okay, amendment: her lab coat was on fire.

But still. Panicking.

With the most embarrassing little screeching sound, Mari swiped the beaker of water off the burner and threw it at Yui. While it still had whatever chemical dissolving in it. (Mari was too busy worrying about Yui burning to death to be concerned with what chemical they were up to.) At the sharp movement and the sudden dousing in liquid, Yui made a similarly high-pitched squeaking noise and blinked, eyes wide as she stared at Mari.

Her glasses fogged up with smoke. And she started laughing. _Laughing_. After being _on fire_. Mari gaped at her.

“Oh my lab coat is ruined,” she whined, peeling her goggles off to inspect the damage. Yui touched the left sleeve of her coat gingerly with her fingertips. “That stinks.” It had a big grey streak from the elbow to the shoulder and a little bit of singing had damaged the stitching on the breast. And as they watched, it became ever more apparent that the dark blossoming across the white was a stain and not just water.

“The chemical,” Mari sighed. “What were we up to?”

Yui only smiled. “I don’t remember. But it’ll probably destroy the fabric.” And with that she shrugged out of it, draping it across one of the stools.

“You’ll have to dispose of it.” Fuyutsuki had materialised behind them, eyes on the coat. “If you’re not sure what the chemical was it’ll have to be thrown in with the waste.” He nodded his head to the back of the room where a bin with an orange lid stood. It was specifically for discarding potentially hazardous material from the labs.

With pursed lips and a sad sort of crease between her brows, Yui picked up her coat – making sure to only touch non-damaged areas – and dropped it through the little flip-top in the bin. When she turned back to their work station, her fingers doing a mad dance as if itching to reach into the bin and retrieve her coat, there was an odd look on her face. Mari didn’t really know what it was though, mostly she seemed expressionless, but there was something – _something_ – not quite… well… Yui.

Mari decided it was disappointment.

“I’m sorry about your coat,” she muttered, feeling guilty.

Yui just shook her head. “It’s not your fault.”

“Well it kinda is,” Mari tried to joke. “If I hadn’t written the numbers down wrong you wouldn’t have pointed it out and your coat would be fine and… I’m still sorry.”

As Mari forced herself to stop spewing nonsense and felt her cheeks heat, Yui smiled. That soft one that maybe Mari liked to entertain meant Yui was _fond_ of her. “It’s alright,” she said. “Really.” Then she sucked in a deep breath. “I’ll have to go out next week and get one.”

“Why not sooner?” Mari wondered.

“I have a presentation next week,” Yui explained. “A group thing. I’d like to concentrate on that first. So…” She paused, thinking. “Next Wednesday, I guess I’ll go.”

“Oh alright,” Mari mumbled, angling slightly towards their half-completed experiment so Yui couldn’t see the small smile on her face. “That’s responsible.” But in her head she was thinking it was _perfectly_ convenient and a brilliant plan expanded before her. Something foolproof and wonderful and…

She was getting ahead of herself. One thing at a time.

“Yui.” They both twisted to see Fuyutsuki looking at them from across the room. “Grab one of the spare coats from the closet. And don’t set fire to this one.”

A ripple of laughter filled the room, their fellow students finding it hilarious. Mari went pink again; still feeling like it was at least seventy percent her fault. But Yui smiled with them and went to do as he’d suggested. Though she couldn’t stop her face from crumpling into an expression of thinly veiled disgust at the prospect of wearing one of the share coats. They were available for all students to wear if needed and probably came pre-packaged with a head cold or mild case of the flu or something. Mari didn’t envy her.

Once Yui had shrugged into the coat and snapped her goggles back into place, she fired a grin at Mari and propped a refilled beaker back up onto the stand. Mari couldn’t resist pushing the notebook across the bench towards her. It earned a curious glance.

“Maybe you should write this time,” she suggested, teasing. “Keep your cuffs away from the fire.”

Yui rolled her eyes. “Don’t catch fire.”

Beneath Yui’s smile though, her glittering green eyes, Mari was sure it was much too late. There was something warm coiling around in her stomach already.

Yep. Too late.

 

* * *

 

Mari spent most of Friday locked behind her bedroom door. The morning she caught the bus into the city and poked around in shops until she found what she was after. Even though it was a minor success, she still felt as if she’d managed the impossible.

And really, she figured that was fair. What kind of store stocked lab coats anyway? Well Mari wasn’t about to question it; she was just happy she’d found one.

So all day in her room it was. Kyoko had classes most of the day which was nice, Mari’s lack of classes meant she had all day to complete her self-assigned task. For a little while around lunch time she felt a little bit panicky to be focusing so intently on something that definitely had nothing to do with her studies. But once she got underway with her project it was much easier to shove aside the thoughts of taking notes.

Her day disappeared. Slowly but surely the light faded from the window and she had to flick on her desk lamp, the blinding fluorescence illuminating her work. She had to squint through her glasses to make out the tiny stitches against the glare, the rest of her room sunk into darkness leaving her in a puddle of brightness around her desk.

She was vaguely aware at some point of the door to the apartment squeaking open and banging shut again. However it wasn’t until what she estimated was half an hour later that Kyoko slammed on her door that she really registered it. As if having Kyoko knock (well it was more pounding than knocking, really) was a cue, her stomach made an unhappy sound. Her eyes flicked to her clock. She hadn’t eaten in about six hours. And she’d had a late lunch. Right.

“Mari are you in there?” Kyoko whined. “I’m hungry. Do you want me to order Thai or something?”

“Yes please!” she called back. “I’ll be out in a second.”

The rhythmic banging on her door stopped so Kyoko must have gone to get the phone. Mari turned her grainy eyes back on her project, blinking sleepily. For the next few minutes she tidied up her handiwork, deleting her search history from her laptop (to conceal all evidence) and snapped the thread off when she was done, bundling up the remaining supplies and stashing them in the back of one of her drawers.

Flicking off her desk lamp was a relief and then she stepped outside to find Kyoko sprawled out on the couch, wet hair wrapped in a towel. Obviously she’d showered between getting home and knocking on her door. Her head lolled to one side when Mari sank down beside her.

“Busy day?”

“Yeah,” Mari sighed. “You?”

“Yeah. Might just pass out after food.”

“Good plan.”

They lapsed into silence and stayed that way until the delivery boy arrived. Then Mari stood and mumbled thanks, paid him and collapsed back down onto the sofa to eat in quiet. She found it sort of strange to be sitting in silence with Kyoko. Probably just because it didn’t happen very often.

Not an hour later the lights were all out and they had both fallen asleep. Mari could hear Kyoko’s soft snores, lying awake a little while longer. It was hard to sleep with anticipation thrumming along every fibre of her being. But she managed. Eventually.

 

* * *

 

Kyoko was never awake at seven on Saturday mornings, so Mari made the most of her time. A quick shower, throw on clothes for the day, wrap yesterday’s project up in several plastic bags (because she felt weird wrapping it in paper) and out the door. With luck, she could be finished her errand before Kyoko even woke up.

The breezes of the last few weeks had died down leaving nothing but a crisp chill to the air. Not cold enough that she wished she’d worn a heavier jacket, but enough that she hurried a little as she headed up the hill. The Village was very quiet on weekends, especially before lunch time. Mari didn’t meet a single soul on her way until she reached her destination.

Gendo was pulling the blinds up out of the windows at Third Impact. The sign proclaiming that the café was closed still hung from the hook on the door. But when he saw her approaching he unlocked the door, his unsettling smirk in place as she stepped inside.

“What can I do for you?” he asked. Something about his tone set Mari’s teeth on edge. She liked Yui plenty, but her brother was… well he was a bit of a knob.

She hunched a shoulder. “Just wondering if Yui’s here?”

He rolled his eyes, still smiling in a way Mari definitely didn’t like. “Out the back.”

Quickly she ducked around him and hastened into the kitchen. It was rather warm, but not unpleasantly so. And it smelled like all the baked goods which was very nice.

Yui looked up from where she was patting icing onto finger buns and beamed. “Good morning, Mari. What brings you around?”

Mari jostled the plastic-wrapped bundle in her arms, the motion drawing Yui’s attention. “I just had something I wanted to give you.” Suddenly unsure of what to do with the package, she simply held it out for Yui to take.

“What is it?” her friend asked curiously, fingers already prying at the twine holding it all together.

“Well,” she said with a tentative quirk to her lips. “The whole point of wrapping it was so you had to open it and find out.”

Yui’s surprised smile made this whole endeavour worth it. “Right.” She kept peeling off the plastic though until she got to the middle. And when she began to unfold the white fabric she just about squealed. “A lab coat.” Her fingers ran across the pink stitching on the breast where Mari had painfully (pricks on her fingers to prove it and everything) written her name and sewn a little flower on the end just because. The cuffs had pink stitching too, a florally design she’d found on the internet and the reason for the band-aid on her thumb. “Oh thank you.”

“No worries,” she huffed. “I mean I felt bad for being a little – oh!”

She cut off as Yui threw her arms around Mari’s shoulders in a full body hug. “Really, thank you. It wasn’t your fault, by the way. But thanks.”

Mari knew her face was definitely red by this point so she just hugged Yui back as best she could and tried to make it go away. Honestly, she decided she quite liked being hugged by Yui, even if it did maybe send her into cardiac arrest judging from how her heart was pumping in overtime. She could handle the blushing just for this.

Unfortunately, when Yui pulled away several things happened at once. The first of which was Yui’s bracelet catching on the arm of Mari’s glasses and tugging them awkwardly off her face whereupon they flew towards the door and clattered to the ground. The sound was ominous but Mari couldn’t see what the damage was since without her glasses everything was just a big colourful blur. The second awful thing was Gendo striding in calling for Yui. Mari knew what a shoe crushing glasses sounded like and it was exactly what she heard as he stepped through the doorway. And the third awful thing was the strangled sound Yui made when she realised what had happened.

Mari might not have been able to see Yui’s face clearly, but she was sure the expression there was absolute devastation. “Oh my god,” she squeaked. “Your glasses.”

The blur that was Gendo shifted, his feet shuffling away as he realised what he’d trod on. “Sorry?” he chuckled unhelpfully.

Yui’s hands were on her shoulders then. “How bad is your sight without glasses?”

She shrugged. “I’m more or less blind. Short-sighted. Nothing past maybe five centimetres is clear.”

“Do you have spare glasses?”

Mari rolled her lips under. “Those were my spare glasses, actually.” She arched a shoulder. “I’ll get Kyoko to take me to the optometrist on Monday.”

“She has classes on Monday,” Yui reminded her. “It’s okay. Will you be alright without them today? I’ll help you home. Gendo, cover for me, please.”

“I’ll be fine, thanks,” she mumbled. “You don’t have to do that.”

She was sure Yui smiled at her in that blurry way, but since she was _already_ blurry, she could be sure. “Nonsense. I don’t want you getting hit by a car. Just give me one second.” She backed Mari up until her back hit the wall. “Stay here.”

Mari nodded, smiling wanly. She watched the shape that was Yui, a sort of pink and white mass with a splotch of brown on top as she crossed the kitchen. Honestly, Mari had no idea what Yui was doing until she was being handed a tall cup of tea and a breakfast muffin.

“Thanks.”

“My pleasure. Let’s get you home.”

“You really don’t have to.”

“I’d like to. Stop trying to talk me out of it, you won’t.” Her tone was firm, but what Mari could make out of her face appeared to be smiling. So she smiled back and let Yui lead her outside. And when she was finished eating the muffin, Yui slipped her hand into the crook of her arm like at the faire as if she thought maybe they’d get separated.

More people had filtered into the streets by this point and Mari wondered if Gendo would be alright by himself during the rush. She didn’t say anything though, just in case Yui had to hurry back. It was selfish, but she was alright with that.

“Will you be able to study without them?” Yui asked her softly.

“Yeah, I’ll manage. Kyoko can help if I need it.”

Yui bobbed her head. “Alright, that’s good. Don’t strain your eyes though, alright?”

She smiled, squinting her eyes a little to bring Yui a bit further into focus. “Promise.”

“Good.”

And okay, so Mari completely missed her apartment building. None of the usual landmarks stood out to her without her glasses so the building didn’t seem like the right one. Thankfully, Yui knew which one was hers and steered her in the right direction. When they reached her door, too, Mari’s fingers skated over the lock, trying to fit the key in it and failing. Yui gently removed the key from her hand and unlocked it for her. She scrunched her nose up, feeling a little bit like an invalid but Yui didn’t say anything about it.

“You sure you’ll be okay?” Yui asked, pulling the door closed. “Do you want me to do anything before I go? I can bring you something to eat if you need it?”

“I’m fine, Yui,” she said, trying to laugh. It sounded forced in her ears and thanks to her currently poor vision, she couldn’t tell how it was received. “Honestly, I’ll be alright. I’ll make Kyoko do things for me.”

Mari got the impression that Yui’s expression was dubious mostly from the silence. But eventually she sighed. “Okay. Well you have my number, call me if you need anything.”

She nodded. “Okay.”

Catching her completely off guard, Yui leaned in and hugged her tightly again. “Thanks again for the coat and I’m sorry I broke your glasses.”

This time, Mari’s hands came up to settled on the small of Yui’s back, hugging her in return. “It’s fine. Really.”

“It’s not,” Yui mumbled into her hair. “You’re blind and it’s my fault. I’ll totally make it up to you somehow.”

Very pointedly, Mari did not tell her a way she could do that right away. She got the impression that perhaps it would come across wrong. So she held her tongue and let Yui pull away.

“See you later,” Yui said, face close enough that Mari could see her smile. “Bye, Kyoko.”

Mari felt her hackles rise, but she waited for Yui to disappear out the door before turning. Kyoko was leaning against the wall by the kitchen, watching her. The expression on her face was unreadable due to how blurry she was; all blue pyjamas and red hair.

“For a moment I thought you’d finally bitten the bullet and kissed her,” Kyoko drawled, pushing away from the wall and stepping into the kitchen to make breakfast. Mari felt her face heat at the words and cursed herself. “You didn’t… did you?”

“No, Kyoko,” she sighed.

“Lame. Where are your glasses?”

“Broken.”

“You’ve had an eventful morning,” she noted. “Would you like pancakes?”

She crumpled into one of their stools and slumped across the bench. “Yes please.”

“You got it.”

 

* * *

 

Having Kyoko help her study had sounded like a great idea when she told Yui about it. But the brilliance was only in theory. In practice, Kyoko was a huge distraction.

She had music playing from her laptop and every now and then she’d stop what she was doing to sing into her pen and bounce in her seat. She also kept checking her phone as if waiting for something exciting to happen. And snack breaks were a big deal to her.

Mari was amazed she ever got any study done. The fact that she was a certifiable genius and top of several of her classes was a wonder. Mari assumed she’d been right initially: Kyoko learned information through some highly advanced form of osmosis.

Still, having her read questions aloud (when Mari could get her to) was a huge boon. It meant she didn’t have to squint at her revision sheets or the textbooks. She could simply scrawl out what she hoped where answers that remained legible when she got new glasses.

Not all was lost, however. At about five-thirty that evening, just as Kyoko was about to order pizza for dinner, there was a knock on the door. Naturally, Mari didn’t answer it, just went on and tried to read the next question in her book.

“It’s for you,” Kyoko sang, her voice laced with something Mari couldn’t interpret without being able to see her expression. She had a feeling that the pastel blob in the doorway when she stood was Yui, though, which definitely explained Kyoko’s tone.

“Hey,” the blob said in Yui’s cheerful voice. (Nailed it.) “Just wanted to check and see how you were doing.”

Kyoko had made herself conspicuously scarce. “Yep, doing just fine. We were about to order dinner.” She hoped the ‘if you want to stay’ was implicit.

“Oh, sorry to intrude then.” Apparently Yui missed it. “I’ve got a couple of things left to do today anyway, but I wanted to make sure you’re alright. Which you are.”

“Mission accomplished,” Mari quipped.

Yui hooked a thumb at the door. “I’ll just go then. I can stop by in the morning though if you want?”

“Uh yeah, I mean, if you want to?” Why the words got all jumbled she’d never know. But they did and she wanted to kick herself.

With one last smile Yui backed out the door. Kyoko’s blurry smudge reappeared by the kitchen, something cream coloured in one hand. The phone, maybe.

“You are so smooth,” she laughed.

“You suck.”

Kyoko just laughed some more. “Dinner’s coming.”

 

* * *

 

“The eye place isn’t open on Sundays,” Kyoko told her, setting the phone back in the cradle. “Not the only one within walking distance anyway and I’m not spending all day on buses with you.” She flopped onto the couch beside Mari who was pretending to watch something on television. “Call your girlfriend; I’m sure she’d go with you.”

Mari gave her a watery glare. “She’s not my girlfriend.”

“But she could be if you asked,” Kyoko informed her as if it was entirely that simple. “Try it. You’re blind so pretend I’m Yui and ask me out.” She bounced around on the chair so she was facing Mari. “Come on, just try it.”

Mari rolled her eyes. “That’s stupid.”

“Just ask me.”

“Do you… want to go out?” she asked flatly.

“Not with that attitude,” Kyoko laughed.

With a long-suffering groan, Mari flopped sideways so her face was pressed into a pillow. Kyoko was more than persistent enough to keep pressing the matter so when she didn’t Mari was quite shocked. She tilted her head to locate her and found her gone. So she sat up and twisted, trying to find her.

Kyoko was at the door but Mari couldn’t see who she was talking to. Her friend gave her a quick look before disappearing into the corridor and suddenly Mari was sure something bad was happening. And yet all that happened was Yui stepped into the apartment and pushed the door closed behind her.

Mari was on her feet before Yui could even turn to see her. But when she did, Mari could practically sense the smile. “Were you watching TV?” she asked, sounding amused. “Can you even see it?”

Hastily, Mari groped around on the couch for the remote and jabbed the little red spot that was the power button. “No, I was just listening to it,” she explained. “What’s up?”

Yui’s blob made a vague gesture that Mari knew was a shrug. “You said I could come around this morning to check on you if I wanted to. So I did. And I brought this.” She pulled a small box from her bag and passed it to Mari. “It’s not wrapped; I didn’t want you to have too much trouble.”

She grinned, recognising the teasing tone of voice. “So thoughtful,” she joked back.

And when she lifted the lid she was delightfully surprised to a pair of glasses in wide carmine frames. Her heart did another one of those improbably backflips at the same time her breath got stuck in her throat. Tentatively, she slipped the arms over her ears and pushed them up her nose. Suddenly, vision!

“Oh my god, Yui,” she breathed, turning to face her. “Thank you so much. How did you do this? None of the places were open on the weekends.”

She shrugged. “My uncle is an optometrist at the place across town. I took the broken lenses from your glasses to him and he had some made up for you.”

“Over night?” she pressed. “That _never_ happens.”

“I told him it was urgent.”

Mari beamed. “You are the best.” And she pulled her friend into a giant hug to prove it. “Thank you so much. Really this is amazing. I can _see_ again.”

Yui just laughed. “Well you gave me a wonderful coat.”

Carefully, she backed away slightly, holding Yui at arm’s length. “Okay that’s not…” she sighed. “I mean… ugh.”

She supposed the strange look Yui gave her was called for. “You alright?”

For five whole seconds, Mari’s eyes flicked between both of Yui’s as she contemplated doing something potentially quite dumb. Kyoko’s words from the other day flashed through her head as she bit her lip. She still hadn’t answered Yui’s question, but there was too much happening in her head for her to worry about that. Fingers tapping anxiously against her thigh she took a breath, grabbed the pockets of Yui’s coat and leaned in to kiss her.

Just like that. Heart hammering in her chest, their lips brushed.

Only briefly, it was barely a thing that happened. But Yui’s eyes were wide as she leaned out; looking shocked, Mari already knew she was going to go bright red. For a moment Mari wondered if she’d done something hideously awful and they’d never speak again, but then Yui’s mouth curled up in a gentle smile.

“What…?”

Mari sucked in another breath, deeper than the last one and then words fell out. “Yui, I’d like to go out. I mean, with you. Me and you.”

“Like a date?” Yui asked softly.

“Um… yes. On a date.”

“Next Friday alright with you?”

Mari blinked, entirely convinced she’d heard wrong. “Ah, yeah. I mean are you sure?”

“Am I sure that I want to go on a date with you?” Yui wondered, still smiling. “Yes. I’m sure.”

“Oh. Oh, okay. Great. Next Friday.” She paused, not sure if the thought that had flared to life in the back of her head was stupid or not. “Uh… can I still come to the café?”

Yui just laughed. “Obviously. Definitely still come to the café.”

“Okay,” Mari exhaled. “Good.”

And then Yui tilted towards her and pressed a careful kiss to her cheek. “I have to go relieve my brother,” she muttered. “See you later?”

“Yeah,” she sighed. “Yep. See you.”

With one last glance over her shoulder, Yui bounced out the door. It clicked shut but didn’t stay that way for long. Kyoko came flying back in pretty much straight away. She must have been loitering outside which meant she’d only been out there to ‘give them space’.

“So how’d that go?” Kyoko asked, obviously not expecting much of an answer. “Did you kiss her yet?”

Mari stayed quiet, too busying wrestling with the colour still in her cheeks. So Kyoko glanced back at her, eyeing her carefully. “Maybe,” Mar managed.

“Oh. My. God. _What_?” Kyoko was by her side in a half a second. “Did you kiss her?”

“I might’ve.”

“Did you ask her out?”

“Yes.”

Kyoko grinned. “See? Was that hard?”

“ _Yes_ ,” Mari insisted, staring at her incredulously. “It was.”

But Kyoko was already waving a hand. “And what’d she say?”

Mari folded her arms, huffing. “Well she said yes, didn’t she?”

“Oh man, look at you go. Got a date with your cute barista _at last_. Good job.”

As Kyoko turned to go back into the kitchen and get food Mari slumped. “Kyoko. What do I do now?”

“Um… you go out with her?” That raised eyebrow was back, emphasising her words. “Duh.”

Mari did her best to convey a ‘you’re not being very helpful’ type sentiment with just her expression. Kyoko kept trying to look innocent but eventually she cracked, smiling.

“Right. Well take her out to dinner or something. Eat here if you’re not up to going out somewhere public.”

“Is it okay to have a stay-in date?” Mari asked, unsure.

Kyoko just waved a hand. “Sure, why not. Watch a movie, cook her food. You’ll be fine.”

She pressed her lips together, not convinced. But Kyoko merely offered her a thumbs up, snagged a packed of chips from their cupboard and headed to her room.

“Nice glasses,” she called over her shoulder before her door shut.

 

* * *

 

Mari spent most of the week in a state of panic.

Between classes and during the spaces where she couldn’t get invested in her study, she thought about the date. A freaking _date_ with _Yui_. Cause for panic, in her opinion.

What was appropriate dress? Was she capable of not screwing up if they went out somewhere? Would it be weird if they stayed in? What was Kyoko going to be doing on Friday if they did stay in? (The answer to the last question was easy, Kyoko was going to watch Toji and Gendo play a game of baseball just like she’d said she would.)

The rest Mari had to muddle through mostly on her own. She texted Yui a few times to ask if there was something in particular she wanted to do, but her answers were unhelpfully vague. And by the time Thursday had rolled around she was really struggling to have a coherent conversation with her at the café. Mostly she just stammered awkwardly and turned bright red. Kyoko said she looked like a stressed tomato, whatever that means.

In the end, all her agonising was for nought.

Because honestly, in the middle of semester while living in a student housing village on campus, there really _aren’t_ all that many options for mind blowing dates available. (That was the only helpful thing anyone said to her on the topic all week, thank you, Rei.) There was nothing showing at the movie theatre and none of the dine in restaurants close to their apartments were the kind of places for first dates (or any kind of date, Mari supposed).

So she grudgingly took Kyoko’s advice.

She made some educated guesses on the details and then all she could do was hope for the best. Something she didn’t make a habit of doing if she could avoid it since usually simply hoping for something was poor planning. But people involved a lot more complicated variables and giving up on trying to plan for all eventualities was way less stressful.

And yet she was still nervous when Kyoko smiled supportively and left a good thirty minutes before Yui was supposed to arrive. She’d already changed into three different outfits since lunch and for a moment she was tempted to take off the little floral dress she had on for something slightly more casual. But then a rap came on the door in a happy little tune that announced Yui better than anything else could and she had no time to continue panicking.

Mari pulled the door in and everything stopped. Yui in a pink dress with a ruffled hem and ivory stockings with her hair curling around her face and a brilliant smile could do that to her. Wordlessly she stepped aside so Yui could enter.

“Wow it smells great in here,” she observed. “Are we staying here?”

“Yes,” Mari replied, glad she didn’t sound like someone was choking her. “There were no restaurants I liked enough. I hope that’s okay?”

“Wonderful, thanks.”

She gestured at the television. “I got some movies too if you’d like to watch something after we eat.”

“Sounds perfect.”

And just like that all the residual worry fell away, draining out through her toes and dissipating. “I’m glad. It’ll be ready shortly.”

Yui sank slowly onto one of the stools by the island. “You cook, huh?”

“Yeah. I mean, the internet helped,” she admitted. “But yes.” Mari kept her eyes on the food, pretty certain she’d do something unforgivable if she looked at Yui for too long. But she just couldn’t help it.

She turned back around and found Yui watching her with this inexplicable glimmer in her eyes. The moisture in her throat vaporised and she felt the corners of her mouth twist upwards for no real reason she could discern.

“Hey, Mari,” Yui began slowly, leaning across the bench on her elbows and drawing Mari’s eyes to places she didn’t think were appropriate and making her cheeks heat. “Had you… wanted to do that for a while?”

“Um, do what?”

“Kiss me.”

“Oh.” Her face did that stop light impression again. “Maybe. Yeah.” She hesitated, pulling cutlery out of a drawer just to give herself something to do. “I meant to ask you out first but… I um…”

“I get it.” She stood, stepping around the island and into Mari’s personal space. “And is it maybe something you’d like to do again?”

Mari did her utmost to keep her eyes on Yui’s but that was _oh so hard_ with her standing that close. “Yeah,” she whispered. “Would that… I mean, are you…”

“I’m okay with it.”

For a moment they had nothing to say. Mari searched Yui’s face, wondering if she’d find a clue or something that would explain what she should do next. She wasn’t sure, but maybe that little smile was hopeful – expectant. So Mari took another chance, leaning in slowly, waiting for Yui to pull away and tell her she was mistaken, but it didn’t happen. If anything, Yui’s smile widened slightly.

So Mari dipped the rest of the way and kissed her. For the second time. Slower this time, with less impatience and fear. And this time, Yui kissed back.

Still highly uncertain that this was the right thing to do, Mari’s hands writhed by her sides, wondering if it was okay to touch her or not. When Yui’s arms wound around her shoulders Mari decided it was probably fine and let her hands land on her waist.

And then instinct kicked in. She pulled Yui closer, tilting her head to one side and really enjoying the way it felt when Yui sighed. Shivered at the feeling of hands in her hair.

At length, Yui leaned away and Mari blinked feeling a little stupid. “We should do that more regularly,” she breathed around a grin.

“Yeah?” Hopeful.

“Yeah. But maybe we could eat first?”

Mari started laughing. “Yeah, okay. Give me a minute to get plates.”

She busied herself doing that but she could still feel Yui’s eyes on her. Plates, and then food. Glasses, and then drink. Napkins she’d folded into flowers earlier because she couldn’t contain her anxious fidgeting.

“Hey, Mari,” Yui began softly as she sat down beside her.

“Yes?”

They both looked up at the same time and smiled. “I’m really glad you kissed me.”

“Really?”

She nodded. “Yeah. And maybe… If you want, I’ll cook for you on our next date?”

The words were phrased as a statement but the way her tone lifted at the end turned it into a question, uncertain, and it made Mari’s smile soften. “If you want to do this again, sure. I’d like that.”

“Well, I mean, I’m enjoying this,” Yui told her. “If _you_ want we could do this like… several more times maybe.”

Mari’s smile cranked back up into a grin. “Sure. That sounds nice. Maybe at some point we could even go watch your brother play.”

Yui rolled her eyes, sighing. “He’s been bothering me about going to watch for weeks.”

“Kyoko’s been on me about going with her too. She was a bit miffed I wasn’t going tonight, I think,” Mari agreed.

“Alright. Well maybe for our _third_ date, we’ll go watch a game.”

“That sounds good to me.”

The rest of their evening progressed in much the same way. A little bit of joking, a little bit of more serious conversation and a lot of kissing at random intervals. Which Mari did not mind one bit. Not at all.

She especially did not mind when it got to be nearly ten o’clock and they both fell asleep on the couch.

 

* * *

 

And she minded even less when, on their third date at the baseball game nearly four weeks later, Yui introduced her to her friends as, “Mari, my girlfriend.”


End file.
